Dorkim Libi-Ponnim (Liby-Phoenician Infantry)
|-|EB1= |-|EB2= EB1:These heavy Liby-Phoenician Infantry are drawn from the self-reliant Carthaginian citizenry, and make superior phalanx soldiers. EB2:These are the men of average wealth, who can afford a full panoply of an hoplite. Description Liby-Phoenicians are described as a mixed race, half Punic and half African. A mixture of colonial and native blood, they first lived in Carthaginian colonies in Africa such as Utica or Hadrumentum, but around the fifth century BC, the Liby-Phoenicians started to be found in other Carthaginians settlements around the Mediterranean. Due to the sheer number of the Liby-Phoenician population, Carthage decided to use them to increase the population in colonies like those found in Iberia and Sicily. The Liby-Phoenician population shared many features and traits with the Carthaginians, like language and religion, but they never had the same rights. They had to pay tributes and unlike the Carthaginian citizens, Liby-Phoenicians had to serve in the armies of Carthage. They were armed and armored much the same as their Greek enemies on Sicily. They were armored in a linen cuirass, Thracian helmets, and bronze greaves. They have the traditional large round shields and long overhand spears of the classical hoplites of Greek mainland. They are a quality phalanx, able to stand up to both Romans and their Greek counterparts. They lack the heavy armor necessary to provide a huge amount of staying power on the battlefield against heavier infantry, however. This problem led to the adoption of mail armor later. Historically, the Liby-Phoenicians were present at every major battle of the Carthaginian wars. They gave good accounts of themselves against Romans, Libyans, Italians, Greeks, and Iberians. They were and are great phalanx spearmen, well able to stand up to most other regular infantry. They were later armored with captured or copied Roman style armor. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ These are the men of average wealth, merchants, craftsmen, artisans, masons and the like who can afford a full panoply of linothorax armour, a hoplon shield, a spear and a sword. They are not state formed or equipped and are merely those citizens of Canaanite colonies who, in times of crisis, have the equipment ready to engage in battle in defence of their home and livelihood. This is the old style and over time, as more subjects are equipped to fight by the Qarthadastim state, fewer colonials are prepared to do battle. Historically, the Phoenicians did not refer to themselves as such. Though the Greeks called them Phoenicians and the Latins Punics, the Phoenicians referred to themselves by their city of origin, Tyre, Sidon, Byblos, and so on. Even citizens of colonies referred to themselves either by their home colony, or by the name of the city that founded the colony. The only identifier Phoenicians might have used to refer to themselves as an overarching ethnicity would have been Canaanite, the name of the large ethnic group in Israel and Lebanon from which the Phoenicians emerged. This is ironic as Canaanite was originally a made up name, to describe the people that became known as the Canaanites, meaning merchants. Later Greek and Roman authors often discounted the colonies outside of Africa that Carthage controlled and referred to the colonies in Africa as Liby-Phoenician, even implying that they were inferior to Carthage because they had bred with native Libyans. Whether or not they did mix with Libyans, the Carthaginians viewed them as inferior because they were not Carthaginians, a simple, and very Phoenician, mentality. There is no evidence to suggest Carthage treated the Phoenician colonies in Africa any different from those elsewhere in Sardinia, Sicily, Malta, Baleares and Spain, except perhaps for the city of Utica, but it was a special case. If any of these colonists were to organize as an infantry force they would have done so in the same manner, as a hoplite phalanx. Even the citizens of Carthage fought in the same way, in this militia force, when necessary. This happened in the late fourth century BC with the invasion of Agathocles, in the First Punic War with the invasion of Regulus, during the Mercenary War and in the Second Punic War with the invasion of Scipio Africanus. This only changed by the time of the Third Punic War when Carthage had surrendered most of its arms and armour to Rome before the war began and was forced to re-equip quickly with mass produced swords, thureos shields and javelins. Phoenician hoplites supposedly accompanied Hannibal's forces in Italy and may have been re-equipped with chain mail, attributed by the Romans as an adaptation to their tactics and technology. Usage These spearmen are the anvil of a regular Karthadastim army and make for a good line infantry, due to being well-armored and having a highly disciplined formation and a well-motivated force that can hold against even the strongest enemy force with guard mode on while the Carthaginian general plans for a counterattack. Like other hoplites and phalanxes however, they are weak at being attacked at the flanks and rear. Category:Units Category:Karthadastim